Jurisdictions around the world are adopting IFRSs. Nearly 100 countries currently require, or permit the use of, or have a plan to converge their national standards with, IFRSs.

Financial reporting surveillance work is undertaken by regulators around the world including those in Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. One of the aims of this type of surveillance work is to ensure consistent application of accounting principles by issuers of securities in these securities markets.

The results of some of the surveillance work undertaken by regulators around the world has been made available on the internet:

(a)

the US regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), publishes its findings on its website: www.sec.gov/divisions/corpfin/ifrs_staffobservations.htm;

(b)

the UK regulator, the Financial Reporting Review Panel (FRRP), publishes its findings on its website: www.frc.org.uk/frrp; and

(c)

the French regulator, Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), provides an extensive document of its findings on its website: www.amf-france.org.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is the worldwide association of national securities regulatory commissions. IOSCO is recognised as the international standard setter for securities markets. All securities regulators have a strong stake in the quality of financial reporting.

IOSCO is committed to the application of one set of global standards in the preparation of financial statements and has recently set up an IFRS database on the application of IFRS globally. Members can exchange information about problems and non-compliance with IFRS.

Information in this database will be assessed by IOSCO, and, where it reveals varying interpretations, IOSCO intends referring these to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) or the International Financial Reporting Interpretation Committee (IFRIC) for consideration.

Variations can occur in regulatory interpretation and enforcement of accounting standards, and those variations potentially undermine the whole purpose of moving to IFRS. The aim of the IOSCO database is to enable consistency of regulatory interpretation of IFRS.

The database became fully operational in January 2007 and is maintained by the IOSCO General Secretariat, based in Madrid. So far, 46 securities regulators have entered into an agreement with IOSCO to take part in the database. The New Zealand Securities Commission will contribute IFRS issues to this database.

The Commission will continue to review issuers' financial reporting as part of the Financial Reporting Surveillance Programme and to take any appropriate steps to encourage compliance with Financial Reporting Standards and other aspects of NZ GAAP.

REVIEW OF FINANCIAL REPORTING BY ISSUERS - CYCLE 5